Ingredients
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300g/ 10 oz short pastacooked
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For Serving
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4 Eggs
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2 tbsp Olive oil
Directions
From time to time I’m doing a Soprano’s episode marathon, it got me real hungry for making the Meatballs with Penne pasta although Carmela uses Spaghetti in her recipe.
There is something about pasta with meatballs and great Italian tomato gravy that is a very comforting meal, I can eat it any day.
Meatballs with Penne pasta – using leftovers
I make about 1-1.5 kg/ 3 pounds of meatballs in a big pot, it’s easily good for 3-4 meals, I was making a big batch of meatballs with tomato sauce the other day, it was great, but what do you do with the leftovers?
That’s right, meatballs with Penne pasta bake! I just love this combination, and I actually prefer penne pasta, or any other short pasta, to spaghetti, from the reason that it’s easier to grab a bite of a short pasta and meatballs on one bite without swirling the fork to grab the spaghetti.
When the meatballs and sauce are ready in advance, and trust me… it tastes better the next day, making a baked meatballs pasta takes less than 30 minutes, just mix it all and put in the oven, it’s that simple and that good!
Baking time
Oven temperature is pretty high for the Meatballs with Penne pasta pan, we only need to grill the pasta and the meatballs, no need for actual cooking since they are both fully cooked.
I place the oven to 225°c/450°F and bake the pasta with meatballs for about 20-30 minutes, make sure you have enough tomato sauce in there, we don’t want the past do dry out.
It’s important not to overcook this pasta bake as well, since I don’t want my pasta to get soggy and mushy. So, keep in mind that high temperature serves this dish better.
Meatballs with Penne pasta – Variations
For this pasta dish I’m adding eggs and bake it for about 5 minutes before the dish is ready, so, when you mix the sauce with the semi raw eggs you will get an amazing tomato sauce, meatballs, egg yolk mix that is absolutely a killer and will take this dish to a different level.
Other variations are gladly accepted, I often use parmesan cheese, feta cheese, bread crumbs, they go great in this dish and will add great texture and flavor.
Steps
1
Done
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making the meatball pasta |
2
Done
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Finishing and serving |